Here’s a creative habit worth stealing: Keep track of what genuinely delights you.
August is Happiness Happens Month, which encourages people to notice and celebrate the small moments of happiness that can easily get overlooked. For creatives, paying attention to those moments can become a surprisingly useful source of inspiration.
Start a Joy File on your phone. Whenever something makes you stop, smile, laugh, or think, “Wait, that’s cool,” save it.
Your file could include:
Don’t worry about whether any of it “goes together.” Your job is to notice. At the end of the week, look through what you collected. What keeps showing up? Certain colors? Humor? Nostalgia? Movement? Bold typography?
Those patterns can teach you something about your creative taste, and developing strong taste helps you make more intentional creative choices.
Try it this week: Collect 10 things that bring you joy. Then use one as inspiration for a sketch, photo, playlist, outfit, video, recipe, beat, or other creative experiment.
Bonus: Send this challenge to a creative friend and compare your Joy Files at the end of the week. You might inspire each other.
